I think we had Brian and Ben (two yellow Wranglers leading), but I don't remember a woman for the tailgunner position that day. We got the 10AM "E" trail that morning, and there were two other guys at your position in a Wrangler (which when I first saw it, almost thought it was Jen's...). I was position 2, right behind the trail guide, and since he saw I was with FM2CD, let me have a little more freedom to "horse around". I also assisted with spotting in a few gnarly places.

On the first day out we tackled "A" at Bob's Creek, which was a pretty good run. On that trail the guide had to contend with:

a: a busted, leaking fuel line...
b: a severed brake line...
c: a ZJ rear coil pop-out...
d: a Wrangler hardtop window breaking and scaring the bejesus outta the kid in back...
e: and disconnected vacuum lines on a YJ (more on THAT later on...)...

For that run we had Steve, Allen (AJ), and girl (can't remember name). AJ had run with FM2CD on a trail beforehand, and was a trip and a half. We got him in a little trouble with Steve on the double rockgarden. Steve was giving some of the more capable Jeeps a go at the offcamber rockcrawl and sharp upwards assault (of which ALL the breakage mentioned with the exception of the vacuum lines happened here!!! ). Anyway, I was sitting on the rock outcropping after the ZJ had popped its coil spring and the CJ had started dumping fuel, and AJ was already heading in the direction of the second area. He looked at me sitting on the rock face, I looked at him, and both of us started laughing. I started spotting him up the steep gap next to the face when Steve yells to AJ to go up the simpler route. Dag-nabbit.

Anyway, due to the high volume of problems, we had to cut that ride about an hour short, but it was lots of fun trailing with Allen (AJ) again.

Now, about the vacuum lines on the YJ. Apparently the owner of the YJ had just RECENTLY purchased it, and had some extensive engine work done to it to get it ready for Camp Jeep (read: NEVER HAD IT OFFROAD BEFORE THAT DAY!!!), so it was halfway into the trail and before the rock garden when we all noticed only ONE WHEEL was turning. After getting it to a more level area, AJ traced the vacuum lines back to see if one of them had come off somehow, and noticed all but one of the lines was CAPPED OFF. Yippie. So, after putting a few ideas together, AJ produced some rubber hose and was able to reconnect one of the hoses back up so that he could get partial 4-wheel drive (two tires moving, at least that's SOMETHING...). So, needless to say, he had to be strapped up the easy slope of the rock garden.

On the second day of trailing, we were headed out to trail "B" which was "CJ-5 Hill". I think we got Dave and Keith on that one cuz I remember it was all guys as well from Mid-Atlantic. Anyway, the SAME YJ was right in front of us (we were two Jeeps from the tailgunner position that day), and the owner swore up-and-down they had finally fixed the problem.

Terriffic.

So we get all the way through the first part of the trail, which took us down the rock side of CJ5 Hill to the offcamber roundabout, and get to the REALLY steep hill climb. Guess what happens next? The YJ loses it's 4x4 ability AND the guy behind the wheel had zero experience with driving stick shift in offroading conditions, so he had started to burn out his clutch from riding it too long. Needless to say, he made several half-attempts to get up the steep grade before the guide called it quits. Now, here's where it gets good. Since he had no 4WD and little clutch, he had hardly any horsepower to even get over the rim of the trail to park his heep. So, I offered to winch him off the trail, which turned into an impromptu class on winching (which the guide gave while he was using my winch ). After we had cleared out the YJ, the guide had to leave his tailgunner behind to stay with the owners until they could strap him off the trail, and since I was the only one in the rear half with tow straps, a winch, front shackles, AND a CB radio, guess who got to tailgun?

The only other thing to mention was only two Jeeps, a Liberty and a 4-door '07, had to be winched off CJ5 Hill (with the exception of the aforementioned YJ). After that it was smooth sailing.

So, by luck of the draw again, we got to help out a little with tailgunning duties. Everybody had nothing but good things to say about FM2CD, so we felt happy to continue to represent that. _________________